One of the benefits of gathering witness statements is that it provides a hint of realism to the case, and takes away the speculation that many investigations are based on. This witness statement must be given alongside a sworn oath that they are telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, in an attempt to prevent false statements.
Other forms of evidence which can be collected include blood from the victim, CCTV footage, and hopefully DNA of the criminals, if they left any at the scene, potentially in the form of hair or a bodily fluids.
This part of the investigation is crucial to the remainder of the investigation as without it is would be impossible for the case to be argued in court, as this is where all of the arguable evidence is produces. It also is where it is proven why the main suspect is such, and allows for the prosecution to convince the jury why the suspect is guilty.
Other forms of evidence which can be collected include blood from the victim, CCTV footage, and hopefully DNA of the criminals, if they left any at the scene, potentially in the form of hair or a bodily fluids.
This part of the investigation is crucial to the remainder of the investigation as without it is would be impossible for the case to be argued in court, as this is where all of the arguable evidence is produces. It also is where it is proven why the main suspect is such, and allows for the prosecution to convince the jury why the suspect is guilty.
The OJ Simpson Case
Within the OJ Simpson Case, there were numerous of pieces of evidence left at the scene which pointed the crime towards OJ Simpson. Firstly, the glove left at the crime scene matched one found at OJ's house, both of which had traces of blood on them. Secondly, there was evidence in the form of a receipt, that Nicole had bought the gloves, linking them directly to OJ.
OJ's blood was also found at the scene, with a 99% match, let alone the blood found at OJ's house, and in his Ford Bronco.
Another piece of evidence against OJ was the witness statements, which claimed he was driving erratically through the area around the time of the murder, despite his claims that he was sleeping.
However; all of this evidence was contaminated or corrupted in some way or another, based on poor collection and speculation.
Firstly his while in trial, OJ famously tried on the gloves, which "didn't fit" putting doubt in the juries heads.
Another reason why many of the pieces of evidence were made unusable was because the crime scene photographs were poorly taken, and were not pictured using a scale, therefore depreciating the integrity of the evidence.
All forensic investigators know that when investigating a crime scene, one of the first things which need to be done, is to create a common approach path,. however in the photographs of the crime scene , there is clear evidence of forensics, and police officers walking all over the place with no indication of a CAP, therefore meaning that any forms of evidence could have been potentially contaminated the police officers. This information was then used by OJ Simpson defence team in order to put doubt into the juries minds, stating that the crime was pinned on OJ by racist police officers.
This stage of the investigation was done terribly, as shown by the poor gathering of evidence, and the contamination of evidence once it had been collected, by storing two pieces of evidence in the same bag; all of which directly led to the acquittal of OJ Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
All forensic investigators know that when investigating a crime scene, one of the first things which need to be done, is to create a common approach path,. however in the photographs of the crime scene , there is clear evidence of forensics, and police officers walking all over the place with no indication of a CAP, therefore meaning that any forms of evidence could have been potentially contaminated the police officers. This information was then used by OJ Simpson defence team in order to put doubt into the juries minds, stating that the crime was pinned on OJ by racist police officers.
This stage of the investigation was done terribly, as shown by the poor gathering of evidence, and the contamination of evidence once it had been collected, by storing two pieces of evidence in the same bag; all of which directly led to the acquittal of OJ Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.